Buy it nice or buy it twice, we’re told.
You absolutely must have your ‘capsule wardrobe’ set up.
And, of course, don’t forget to be ‘de-influenced’ by influencers convincing you to spend less money.
Under the guise of the seemingly new social media trend of being ‘frugal chic’, it at first appears as though we are finally shedding the burdensome skin of consumerism. This trend sees influencers preaching that rather than spending our hard-earned money on an abundance of items (and for which we definitely have no use), we should instead be buying less but spending more on items of better quality.
My deep-seated cynicism towards social media trends for once has no reason to rear its head up. For once, finally, we’re being told to buy less, but this is nothing new. Nor is the term ‘frugal chic.’
Used as part of a title for a 2005 article in The New York Times, ‘frugal chic’ crops up in M.p. Dunleavey’s observation that a conspicuous frugality was losing its following. People were starting to prefer the semblance of being chic without a hefty price tag to accompany it.
If the term itself is nothing new, its popularity on social media, spearheaded by the influencer Mia McGrath, certainly is. A quick Google search of the trend will bring up results adorned with McGrath’s name, who is best known for guiding her followers on how to best achieve this lifestyle, describing the concept in one of her Substack articles as “the art of having ‘enough.’”
I won’t claim that the promise of looking effortlessly put together on a budget hasn’t inveigled me into partly following this trend. I’ve adopted some of McGrath’s commandments for following this way of living.
Thou shalt check the composition of clothes before buying.
Thou shalt merely have one sole big purchase each month.
Though McGrath’s sentiment of being satisfied with “having ‘enough’” is ostensibly an end to the consumerist mentality that is always urging us to buy more, her message becomes counterintuitive when disseminated on the very platforms that are constantly modifying what ‘enough’ truly means. This is certainly true when ‘enough’ becomes subjective, yet inevitably influenced by what strangers on the internet are pushing as the latest trend.
However, if the article from The New York Times emphasises anything, it’s that ‘frugal chic’ is not simply a trend. This is just normal, everyday life, repackaged. This mindset of intentional buying that past generations have been following has been given a facelift, a new honorific, and thrust into the world, riding on the waves of social media.
A trend reminding us of what life was like without trends. When the aesthetics of ‘Y2K’, or ‘Cottagecore’, or ‘Old Money’ simply existed without succumbing to being named by social media.
Even if it is nice to finally be told to spend less, can you truly have your cake and eat it too? Or is better to fork out on a pricey cake, but savour the taste of money well-spent?
